Create It

I have been having a blast making photo collage blankets! A collage blanket can be a true gift from the heart for almost any occasion: birthday, baby gift, graduation, Mother's Day, Father's Day, graduation, wedding, anniversary, and so many more! The technology on many sites makes what was once a rather daunting, laborious task, very easy. Collage.com has been my go-to site for uploading photos, designing, editing, and personalizing blanket gifts. I find the site very user-friendly. It has become one of my favorite creative playgrounds!

*Disclosure Statement: This is not a sponsored post. There are other sites for creating collage blankets. Collage.com is a site that I have used and have found to be very user-friendly. The blanket quality and prints have been of a high quality. I would like to share my experience in using this site with all of you.

I just finished this blanket for my great-nephew, Isaac. I wanted this blanket to be a way to introduce "the family" to Isaac. Our family is spread out from Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. Like many families, it is very rare when we are all able to gather in one place and spend time together. I wanted Isaac to have some photos to associate names and stories of our family. With that in mind, I started downloading photos to my computer to create a collage blanket.

Isaac, Meet Some of Your Family...

Uncle Tom and Aunt Patty are always up for one adventure after another with their kids and grandkids.

Isaac's grandpa and grandma are great travelers, whether in their RV, on a cruise, or on a plane to explore countries of their heritage.

Aunt Sandra and Tula can be found walking in the woods on a snowy day. Hm-m-m??? Who is walking whom?

Great-Grandma is happiest when holding a great-grandbaby, or visiting with her grandchildren, and children.

I wanted to feature our family in this blanket. I hope that my niece will wrap young Isaac in the blanket and periodically “introduce” us to her precious little guy.

Here's another precious guy--my dad, who would've been Isaac's great-grandfather. Dad would've taken great delight in him.

​ I envision it as a family story blanket. My niece might begin the story by pointing to the photo of my dad. “Here is your Great-Grandpa Hanig. He could talk like Donald Duck and often called your Mommy, me, “Charlie,” when I was a little girl. I would respond with 'I'm not Charle!' Then we would both laugh, and then, he might call me George!”

“This is your Aunt Jolene and Uncle Bob. They have a dog whose name is Tucker. Aunt Jolene loves to quilt and decorate and read. Uncle Bob works at the museum with all of the big dinosaurs. He prints large wall murals for the museum. Uncle Bob is also an artist and paints beautiful paintings.”

...and so Our Story Goes...

A collage blanket can be a wonderful way tell a story, celebrate those you love, or send a virtual hug. I love being able to make and give personal gifts. Photo collage gifts have become my new favorite gifts to make.

It isn't necessary for me to do a tutorial on "How to Make a Collage Blanket on Collage.com". The site is very easy to use and one is guided through each step. The site offers a plethora of choices. I like that! I'd like to highlight the choices and share some insights.

Fabric• Smooth Fleece• Sherpa• Woven Image• Cozy Fleece• Plush Sherpa

Size• Baby 30×40• Throw 50×60• Queen 60×80

Upload Photos: This was so easy! Here's screenshot of the icon "Photos".

First step is to click on the "Photo" icon in the menu bar on the left. Then, all you do, is click on "Upload" photos. My photos were all in folders on my computer. As you can see, you can upload photos from Facebook, Google Photos, Instagram, Email, SMS, and Another Device.

Design Templates: There are over 50 templates to choose from, or one can create a custom design. The plan for Isaac’s blanket is called Sweet Dreams. One collage blanket can contain 1 to 30 or more photos. The design template will suggest the optimal number of photos.

Click on the Designs icon and explore all of the possibilities for collage blanket themes and layouts. Ultimately, you have the choice to choose "Custom Design", too.

Backgrounds: The categories are: Pattern Builder, Solid Colors, Textured, Soft, Nostalgic, Vintage, Geometric, Family, Romantic, Holiday, Patterns. Within each group, there are oodles of choices. I chose the matching background for the back side of Isaac”s blanket from “Soft">"Starry Nights.”

I was like a kid in a candy store when it came to all of the choices in the Background menu! One click on each of the various categories unlocks several more choices. This one option became a playground of artistic fun! The following photos will attest to some of my creative musings.

There are so many choices of backgrounds and designs and layouts. Here are some screenshots of backgrounds I "auditioned" of a custom designed collage blanket.

Above is a screenshot of the background menu and 1 possible background choice . It is as easy as a click or two to "audition" backgrounds. You can try out as many as you like. I found contrast is the key to selecting backgournds that make the photos pop. I originally had selected a cute, handprint, kid background for the collage above. When I saw it, I realized it was much too, busy and the light colors didn't do anything to accentuate the photos.

Another click, and I could preview a very serene beachy background.

One more click, and suddenly there was another delightful star background. (I am partial to stars.)

Solids are always a good choice, especially when there are lots of photos.

I think the plaid is just grand. It might not be right for a little boy, but it could be the perfect background for a graduation, grandfather, or Christmas memories collage blanket.

I liked this dramatic, cosmic image a lot.

There are some absolutely adorable kid print backgrounds. This is an example of a background that is just precious, but perhaps too, busy for the amount of photos I have. It would probably work better with another design layout or template.

I almost chose this background and this layout. I love the stars and turquoise to sandy color ombre mix. It is just so, sweet!

I had so much fun playing with the backgrounds. It was helpful to take a screenshot of my favorites, or save each design as a separate project. Then, I could compare them and make my choice. Now, onto the text selections!

Text: There is a great selection of fonts. Text can be added to almost any blanket. You have the option of personalizing blankets with your own sentiments.

More: Don’t forget to click on the “More” button. It gives you the option to add borders to your photos and create shapes.

After I chose my design and uploaded my photos, I had the option to edit the images. All I had to do was double click a photo, and the edit tools appear at the bottom of the screen. My favorite tool was the crop tool. By clicking on it, I could crop my photo to include faces and eliminate extraneous background. People are what I wanted to highlight in my collage, and close-ups are the best way to go. After I got the “close-up” of the photo, I simply clicked “Done,” and my edited photo went back into the collage.

The site also allowed me to move photos from one spot to another in the collage. This was a very nice feature. (I did tell you how much I enjoy having choices, didn’t I?”)

Isaac’s blanket is a “Welcome to the family. We love you to the moon and back. Now, we’d like to introduce ourselves” blanket. It will be a Christmas gift.

Front side of Isaac's blanket.

Collage.com gives you the option to choose a background for the back side of the blanket, too. Photos can be adde to the back side for an additional cost.

​Isaac’s blanket wasn’t my first photo collage blanket. My first photo collage blanket was a “Hugs!” blanket. A dear friend of mine and former school colleague received a daunting health diagnosis. Her school family wanted to do something special for her as she prepared to continue medical treatments. I suggested we do a photo collage blanket filled with photos and memories of all of us. The idea was to wrap her in one big “HUG!” from everyone.

​Another good friend proposed the idea to interested parties, and we collected photos via emails and texts. We had enough images to create a front and back photo blanket. Thus was born, our “Hugs!” blanket for Linda. This was a larger blanket. One thing I learned from doing this blanket: Photos will appear larger on your blanket than on your screen. After all, your computer screen is relatively small compared to the dimensions of the blanket. The blanket turned out very well, and Linda had no problem seeing us!

This was the backside of our "Hugs" comfort blanket.

Linda loved the beach and spending time there with her family. This "beachy" image in backgrounds was the perfect back drop for all of our photos. I found it in "Backgrounds" > "Textured" > "Sun Drenched". The comfort "Hugs" blanket was a big hit with Linda and her family. We were so happy to be able to do something to bring a smile to her face. Believe me, there's a whole lot of love and many wonderful memories in this blanket!​

Some of the original photos were too dark. The "Edit" tool was very helpful for adjusting the sharpness and lightness/darkness of many of the photos. It was easy to enhance these using the "Edit" tool in the Photo Menu. Once again, all I had to do was click on a photo>"Edit" and the following screen appeared. I was able to adjust the the sharpness, light, and apply filters.

This was the original photo. It was a little, too dark.

This is the enhanced version. It was just a matter of clicking and dragging on the sharpness and light dials to get an improved image.

If you are looking for that perfect gift--something unique--something personal--consider creating a collage blanket. Technology makes it quite simple and rewarding to do. A collage blanket can be a wonderful way tell a story, celebrate those you love, or send a virtual hug.